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May 28 2024

A Very Nice Surprise Indeed…

A few weeks back, I came into the workshop expecting a normal day. But by 10am, it was already something special. An email landed in my inbox from Thomas at No. 1 Guitar Center in Hamburg with the subject “Nik Huber Bass/Darryl Jones” and a link to a YouTube video. It was a fan video taken of The Rolling Stones on the opening night of their Hackney Diamonds tour, and sure enough, their bass player Darryl Jones was playing our Rietbergen Bass. Needless to say, it caused a fair bit of excitement in the workshop!

We knew Darryl had one of our basses, but we had no idea if he was using it or that it was on tour with him, so it was genuinely unexpected. It’s hard to think of a better surprise to start your day in a guitar company than seeing one of your instruments appear onstage with arguably the biggest rock band of all time.

Thomas and No.1 Guitar Center actually deserve credit for more than just finding the video and sending it to me. I met Darryl at the store’s Crossroads Guitar Festival last year, where we’d both been invited to take part in interviews and discussions. I actually hadn’t brought a Rietbergen Bass with me (a bit stupid in retrospect!) but I showed Darryl a picture of one. He said some nice things about the design, which was lovely, and I thought that would be it to be honest. But the next day Darryl came up to me and said “Can I see the pictures of that bass again…?”

We got to talking and agreed I’d send him one to try out. It was finished in perfect time for the NAMM Show, so I handed it over there, and was just curious to see what thoughts Darryl would have after spending some time with it.

By the time the Hackney Diamonds tour rolled around I hadn’t heard from him, which I figured was normal considering how busy he is. While undertaking a Rolling Stones tour wouldn’t be the best time to contact someone, so I’d decided just to wait until later in the year to get back in touch. And then that email appeared in my inbox, and there was Darryl onstage with the bass, making it sound as amazing as you’d think.

We got back in touch then – I’m not sure how Darryl found the time to send me some thoughts, but he did, and his praise of the bass was really amazing to hear. It’s in the rotation for a couple of different songs every night, and apparently the crew are loving the tone and the look. Most importantly, Darryl himself is enjoying it and has found it a great fit for certain parts of the set, which is so good to hear.

It was really an honour just to meet Darryl and to get a bass into his hands, let alone to see it on stage for this tour. He’s worked with so many of the absolute best musicians in the world, and is so widely respected as a player, that it really does feel like a privilege just to get his thoughts on our bass.

So, a big thank-you to Darryl, to Thomas, to the whole team here for their hard work on the basses we build, and to all of you for supporting what we do.

Here’s to more nice surprises, though I think this one will be tough to beat!

– Nik

December 21 2023

A Look Back at 2023

It was another busy year for us here at the workshop. We’re building more guitars than ever with a growing team, taking part in more events than ever and releasing more models.

With all that, there are of course a lot of highlights to look back on as we reach the end of the year, but also a lot to be thankful for. So first of all, thank you to all of you for following our work, supporting what we do and playing our guitars. You’ve been a part of all the great things we’ve got to do this year and made them all possible. We couldn’t do it without you!

As things wind down in the workshop, here’s just a quick round up of a few of the highlights from 2023 and a look forward to the year ahead.

New Models

Perhaps the standout from this year would have to be the addition of not one but three new models to our line-up: the Krautster III, Dolphin ’59 and Dolphin Special.

These models all cover ground we’ve visited in the past, either through custom orders or simply through discussions and plans, but these are all specs that we’ve wanted to offer as standard models in the line-up for a while now. It means our whole model line now focuses on our signature Dolphin body shape, which is the direction we’ve been heading for some time. If you caught my recent video, you’ll know we were sped up a little in this by certain considerations to do with a US company – thankfully, we were already heading in this direction, so we felt even more certain that we were going about things the right way.

But those are the more mundane considerations. The thing that really excites us about these model releases is the reaction from you guys. The whole point was to provide things people have been asking for – and we’ve been considering – for ages at this point, and we’re proud to say we believe we achieved that. So many of you at The NAMM Show and Guitar Summit this year told us how much you love the new Dolphins and the Krautster III, and that you see them as an improvement on, development of or exciting blend of our established models. This is exactly what we were aiming for and what drives us when doing something new, so it makes all the work worth it to hear players say exactly that.

Artists have already been taking the new Krautsters and Dolphins on stages and into studios, really putting them through their paces, and their feedback has been incredible. We have players currently with Krautster IIs putting in their requests for Krautster IIIs to complete their touring rigs, and there are already amazing custom orders coming in and being built that we’re really excited about. All in all, we couldn’t have asked for anything more when it comes to putting these new models out into the world. So, again, thank you for all your support and positivity. Myself and the team can’t wait to show off more of these builds in the new year.

The response to the KIII so far has been a real highlight of the year.

Events

It wasn’t just busy in the workshop this year, but out of it too! We were fortunate enough to be a part of amazing events around the world in 2023, something I hope continues into 2024.

As well as a really positive NAMM Show (it was great to see so many of you again!), we also had Guitar Summit in Mannheim, proving that guitar shows have come back really strong after the interruptions of the previous couple of years. Both shows were busy and we got a lot of great feedback on the new models, but the best part was getting to catch up with so many familiar faces and getting to know a few new ones as well.

But trade shows were far from the only guitar events in 2023. We revealed The Guitar Barrel Project collection with a group of fellow luthiers at an amazing event at Pombal’s Palace in Lisbon, were hosted by our dealer Art of Guitar in Dubai for a very special VIP launch event, and had a great time talking all things guitar with great people at No.1 Guitar Center in Hamburg for the Crossroads Festival – including this little interview I did with Thomas Blug.

Like I say, here’s hoping for so many great events next year!

Developments in the workshop

Building on last year, we expanded the workshop and the team in 2023, so we now have the capacity and expertise to do more than ever before. This has also helped us to redesign some of our workflows and open up new possibilities in our work – always exciting!

It’s an incredibly talented team we have working here, and developing further means we can get to more of the things we have planned for the future…

There’s been plenty going on in the workshop – including building plenty of nice Piets!

Looking ahead to 2024

I’m hoping for another year as filled with new developments and opportunities as this one, and we already have plenty in the works.

You can expect to see more from us involving artists from our roster, both online and at in-person events, some of whom have some amazing things planned themselves for the year ahead. We’ll also be collaborating with players beyond our roster for some fun projects, so keep an eye on our Instagram, Facebook and YouTube channel for all of that.

I think we’ve filled out our line-up pretty well with new models (for now at least) but that doesn’t mean the year will go by without some special or limited builds. We do have a 25th anniversary to celebrate after all…and one signature model already underway…

On top of that, the developments in the workshop continue, and I’ll just say for now that you’ll be seeing the results of some of that online over the coming months, so stay tuned.

Already plenty to tease ahead of next year then – but first, a well-earned rest for the whole team. They’ve put in a year of serious hard work, and I think the results speak for themselves.

Thank you again for all of your support in 2023, and I can’t wait to share more with you all in 2024!

– Nik

December 16 2022

Thank You for a Wonderful 2022

Just a small selection of the guitars we put out this year – what an effort from the team!

That one flew by, huh? First things first, a massive thanks is due to all of our customers, dealers, artists and everyone following along with our work – including you reading this blog. We packed this year full of achievements and exciting new projects, and none of that would have been the slightest bit possible without you, so thank you.

And of course, none of it would have been at all possible without the incredible team here at Nik Huber Guitars, so I need to say a huge thank you to them as well. They’ve been working harder than ever to nail some of our most ambitious and challenging work to date, and the results really do speak for themselves. I’m incredibly lucky to have such a team working with me – including to make some of these wild ideas a reality.

It’s hard to cover everything we got to over the last twelve months (and some top secret things are still in progress…) but here’s a quick roundup of some of my highlights from a busy year of guitar building:

Bernie Marsden Signature model

It would have been an honour even just to build Bernie a guitar, so to create a new signature model with him has really been something else. It’s also been a privilege to get to know Bernie and become friends with him through the process, and I’m thinking we haven’t heard the last of the Nik Huber Guitars and Bernie Marsden collaboration (keep an eye out next year…).

As well as being an amazing personal collaboration, the Bernie Marden Signature has also been about exploring new ground in our design and building. You can get the full lowdown on the guitar in this post here, but one highlight I’ll pick out is the honeycomb chambering – we couldn’t be happier with the results, and it’s exciting to think where else we could go with these ideas. As I say, stay tuned…

12 flame-tops and 12 gold-tops made up our limited Bernie Marsden Signature series.

Gear for Hope auctions

Okay, another big ‘thank you’ is due, this time to everyone who was involved in the Gear for Hope auctions. Whether you donated items to the auction itself, placed a bid, bought something or simply liked and shared posts to spread the word: thank you.

With all of our efforts combined, we managed to raise a total of €67,771 to donate to charities and organisations helping those affected by the war in Ukraine. It’s a mammoth effort from the guitar and music communities around the world pulling together, and one that I think we can all be proud of.

Oh, and another ‘thank you’ to the kind bidder that contributed €4000 themselves to buy our special Krautster hand-painted by Ukrainian artist Irina Garshina.

Big thanks again to Irina for collaborating with us on this Krautster!

Guitar shows and clinics

After two years of start-stop lockdowns, getting back out there to do shows and clinics has been a special part of 2022. Again, we’ve got plenty more planned for next year in this regard, but in terms of this year’s outings, Guitar Summit in Mannheim and my clinic at Ahead Music in Cyprus have been highlights.

In Mannheim, it was getting to meet and speak with so many of you again that really made the weekend. Seeing people come over and try out a few models is something I’ve really missed, and actually getting people’s reactions to the Bernie Marsden Signature face-to-face reminded me why these shows are so important.

In Cyprus, it was also all about the people. Don’t get me wrong, the beautiful location is hardly a drawback! But being hosted by the team at Ahead Music and getting to chat with a small group in the intimate atmosphere of a clinic – that’s what really did it for me. Plus, I learned that Cyprus has some seriously killer players!

Clinics are such a cool way to connect with all of you and share some of the stories behind what we do, so definitely look out for more of these to be announced next year.

The booth at this year’s Guitar Summit in Mannheim.

New team members!

The team has continued to grow this year, and we’ve been lucky enough to have several new experienced, skilled luthiers join the workshop, even from as far afield as South Africa. The quality of work the team puts out year after year has continued to amaze me and exceed all my expectations, and I couldn’t be happier with where we’re at.

Oh, and we got a big new CNC (the workshop nerd in me still finds that exciting), nicknamed Arnie. Exciting times in our little company (that’s now a bit less little) and we’re looking forward to what the new year will bring.

Arnie, our new CNC. We’ll alert the proper authorities if he shows signs of attaining sentience.

Mitch came all the way from South Africa to join our finishing team – we’re very lucky to have him on board. He had already attained sentience.

As it’s that time of year…

Well, there’s more than one way to say ‘thank you’, so as a little token of my thanks, and in the spirit of the season, here’s a 10%-off code for our online store, valid through to the end of the year:

NHGXMAS22

Just in case some guitar swag makes for a tempting present to yourself this year!

Thanks again to all of you for supporting our work, and catch you in the new year.

– Nik

July 29 2022

Our One-of-a-Kind, Hand-Painted Krautster

If you caught our recent blog post or follow us on social media, you’ll have heard all about Gear for Hope, a series of auctions in support of humanitarian aid in Ukraine. We teamed up with Grand GTRs and the good folks at Guitar Summit/Gitarre & Bass to bring it together, and incredible people from across the industry have been generous in donating top-shelf instruments, quality amps, parts, accessories and special signed items from artists. The support for the auctions, from those donating items to those bidding and spreading the word, has been amazing – what a community we have here in the world of guitar and music. So a massive thanks to all of you for your support!

While the auctions are steadily coming to a close, we’ve recently added one more item that deserves some time of its own in the spotlight. When working with everyone else involved to get the auctions up and running, we of course decided to donate one of our guitars. But, seeing all of the unique, autographed and genuinely special pieces being offered by our peers, we wanted to make it a truly one-of-a-kind instrument.

Luckily, we had the chance to not only manage that, but to make it a guitar with a deep connection to Ukraine.

And so, we’re honoured to present this one-off Krautster II, hand-painted by Ukrainian artist Irina Garshina.

Our One-of-a-Kind, Hand-Painted Krautster

We built the Krautster with its classic, top-end specs (see below) then, in the spirit of free expression, gave the guitar to Irina for her to paint exactly what she wished – no stipulation, no guidelines, just the blank canvas of the guitar body.

While her work often takes the struggles and difficulties of life as subjects, Irina has chosen here to present something else in these dark times. The motif of The Beatles on the back in a bright psychedelic scene speaks more to hope and freedom – the depiction of John and Yoko on the front, a symbol of love and togetherness. Given Irina’s background in music, it makes for a meaningful personal expression of the power of music and art in the face of hardship. The result is a striking and uplifting piece that resonates with the enduring spirit and indomitable courage of the people of Ukraine.

We’re extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Irina on this meaningful guitar, and thankful to everyone who has come together to make Gear for Hope a reality. With such a special instrument and in aid of such an important cause, we’re hoping to raise a good amount to add to the Gear for Hope fund, so please do check out the auction at this link and consider bidding or spreading the word further! The more people we reach, the better chance we stand of raising a good amount to donate, and the further we spread Irina’s artwork and passion.

Thank you very much again to everyone who has been bidding and helped spread the word about Gear for Hope. Keep an eye out here in the near future for an update on how much we’ve managed to raise as a community, and let’s keep going until all the auctions are done!

– Nik

Krautster II specs:

Hand-painted by Ukrainian artist Irina Garshina
Mahogany body
Flamed maple neck
Rosewood fretboard with dot inlays
Compound 10-14” radius
Pickups: Häussel custom humbucker (bridge), Häussel custom P90 (neck)